藥師經疏 1.90

1.90

Sūtra: “If when calamities and troubles arise […] the calamity of no rain.” / Second, the seven calamities assailing the people. Question: Why do the seven calamities appear simultaneously? Answer: The sixth fascicle of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra says: Because a king is tyrannical and does not cultivate wholesome deeds, the devas forthwith abandon him, and this king brings his country to ruin, giving rise to great grief and anguish. Brothers, sisters, retinues, wives, and children become solitary, scattered, and destitute, and their lives are also extinguished. Meteors frequently fall, two suns appear side by side, evil bandits from other regions invade and pillage their land, the people starve, and there are many epidemics. The ministers whom he respected abandon him and pass away, and elephants, horses, and carriages are lost and destroyed in a single moment. The wealth and property of households throughout the realm are plundered from one another, and they die by weapons of war. The five planets and the lunar mansions violate and lose their normal courses, and various evil epidemics spread throughout his country. The favored ministers in charge of records and all the officials exclusively practice unrighteousness. When those who perform evil are thus treated with special favor, those who cultivate wholesome dharmas decline and perish day by day. Toward those who commit evil, respect is engendered; seeing those who cultivate the wholesome, their minds pay no heed. Evil stars change and shift, rākṣasas run amok, and the three disasters appear simultaneously. The seven calamities then arise. Now, these seven calamities correspond to the three disasters: the first one calamity is pestilence; the next four calamities are warfare; the last two calamities are famine.